It is generally known that presently considerable research is taking place with the purpose of perfecting timepieces of the electronic type having an analog display, that is to say in which the display means comprises one or several hands and the movement thereby requires one or several stepping motors. In particular it is known that with the purpose of obtaining multifunctional timepieces of this type, recently there have been developed arrangements of the movement which comprise several stepping motors controlling several wheel trains.
The general constraints applicable to timepiece construction, in particular the necessity to reduce to the extent possible the overall dimensions of movements and at the same time assure the reliability of operation with as small a consumption of energy as possible, must likewise be taken into account for the construction of timepiece movements having several motors. Up to the present time to obey these constraints one has always arranged the placement of the various motors at the same level one beside the other within the movement. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,399, 3,884,035 as well as the published British patent application Nos. GB 2 028 545 and GB 2 005 875 give examples of arrangements which have been considered necessary up to the present time.
At the same time a need exists for the realization of timepiece chronographs having an increased number of functions over those already known and it has not been possible to reach this result with the arrangement adopted up to the present because of the overcharging of the planar area.